"So many Spitfires...so little time..." or at least that's the way seems to die-hard modeling fans of Supermarine's legendary fighter. Of all of the kits offered in 1/48th scale, Tamiya's varied offerings of the Mk V are among the most popular with competitive and serious modelers. Excellent accuracy, detail, and general engineering of the kit put it in an elite class of quarter-scale Spitfires.

If Tamiya's outstanding kit weren't enough, those folks from Aires just had to take things a step further with their recent release of a cockpit set for Tamiya's Mk V's. Boy, do they deliver! Eight crisply-cast chunks of resin, a fret of top-notch photoetch, and a small sheet of acetate with instrument faces and gunsight glass to raise a high bar even higher.

The de Havilland Mosquito really needs no introduction, beyond the fact that it was one of the most versatile aeroplanes ever built, fulfilling an amazing variety of roles with air forces and civilian organizations across the globe from 1941 until the mid-sixties.

This new kit from Airfix continues a tradition dating back to the early 1970's for large-scale kits, starting with their still-relevant Spitfire I. Rumour has it that Airfix even considered a 1/24 Mosquito back in the early 1980's, but decided to use their research to create a 1/48 kit instead, one that is also still relevant despite newer, more detailed (but not always as accurate) and always more expensive rivals. A couple of years ago, wistful thinking had the newly-reborn Airfix resurrecting those plans, and Lo and Behold! they have.

Despite there being over 600 parts and 52 stages in the instruction manual, this doesn't seem to be an overly complicated kit; however, there are places where care with assembly will be needed to ensure that there are no fit issues later on - I'm thinking particularly of the undercarriage, which will probably be the most fiddly part of the build. The amount of detail seems reasonable for the scale, and bearing in mind the fairly simple nature of the actual aircraft, but I am sure there will be some who wish to go the extra mile and add more; I am planning on doing this build OOB, but I reserve the right to change my mind as I go along. For those who wish to upgrade their references in preparation for the build, I can recommend SAM Publications Aviation Guide 2 - Mosquito FB.VI by Dave Brown that has many useful detail photos of the insides of a Mosquito, with tech manual diagrams as well.

This must be Model Art's 50th Anniversary - at least, that is how I interpret the little 50th logo on the front cover. As usual, Model Art No. 750 June 2008 is in almost 100% Japanese language. The format is close to 7x10 inches in size, and as usual, the printing and reproduction quality is excellent. Most of the articles and reviews (but not the featurettes or ads) are mostly in color.